* Heartland Financial USA Inc - ‍expects transaction to be accretive to earnings per share within first year of combined operations​

* Heartland - as per deal, Signature shareholders will receive 0.0610 shares of Heartland stock, $0.335 in cash for each share of Signature stock​

* Heartland-Co, Signature ‍anticipate transaction to qualify as tax-free exchange with respect to stock consideration received by signature​ shareholders Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: